A review by tomnana
Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov

5.0

The suffering endured in the gulags is boggling. Really any systemized, mass violence eludes reason or imagination. Often, we view these events through a historical context in which numbers of victims, sheer volume of horror, are the point of contact and define the atrocities. This book cannot truly explicate on the magnitude of suffering created in the gulag system. The reality may be that there is no proper reckoning with it. Suffering in Kolyma Stories is personal, the forces which control for ones life are vague and outcomes arbitrary. Perhaps this is the only way you can accurately approach an atrocity. At the very least, if we typically focus on the number of victims, this book ensures that we also know and don't lose sight of the monstrous degree to which an oppressive regime can bear its power with crushing force on one person. Kolyma Stories is a strident illustration of what it means to suffer, and, through absolute deprivation demonstrates what is truly valuable for life.